True Spirits - a Netflix movie Review

"True Spirit" is an inspiring film based on the true story of Australian teenager Jessica Watson, who made history in 2009 by becoming the youngest person ever to sail solo and non-stop around the world. The film, directed by Sarah Spillane and co-written by Spillane, Rebecca Banner, and Cathy Randall, stars Teagan Croft, Alyla Browne, and Cliff Curtis.

Watson was motivated by German sailor Jesse Martin, who completed the same feat when he was just two years older than Watson. Watson trained and gained experience on the water, using Martin's memoir and course as partial inspiration. However, her family faced criticism from the media and government officials who believed they were being irresponsible in allowing Watson to undertake the dangerous journey. Despite this, Watson persisted, overcoming multiple storms and a long period of windless stasis. Her achievement made her an emblem of the can-do spirit, particularly for girls and young women who love sailing but felt excluded from it due to sexism.

The film's structure tends to impede dramatic momentum by regularly cutting back to key moments in Watson's childhood just when the present-tense action is building up a fine head of steam. However, the sailing sequences, a mix of location footage and green screen bits, are stirring, sometimes breathtaking, and occasionally storybook-poetic.

In real life, Watson's dad was against her taking the trip, but the film makes it seem as if he had only a moment's hesitation. Cliff Curtis' character, Ben Watson, is a fictionalized version of Watson's real mentor and project manager, Bruce Arms. He's given a tragic backstory here that seems mainly there to give the heroine something to cruelly use against him at a moment when they're both stressed out. But there are always compressions, deletions, and inventions in dramas based on life, and the leanness of this film's approach works mostly in its favor.

However, the film feels a bit anodyne and perky, suitable for young children who presumably can't handle too many complexities or contradictions. The focus on vindicating Watson and her family and coach makes anyone who raised objections to the trip seem like killjoy ninnies and usurpers of free will, with the media naysayers incarnated by a composite character TV reporter. Additionally, Watson's blog as framed within the movie seems more of an illustration of how to bypass the media and get one's "message" out than an autobiographical treasure trove documenting Watson's incredible journey. Meanwhile, the ingrained sexism that Watson faced from records-certifiers who came up with all sorts of reasons to deny her right to claim a world's record afterward go largely unexamined.

While "True Spirit" is a feel-good film that tells a remarkable story, it is not as thorough and nuanced as Watson's memoir or the 2010 documentary about her achievement, "210 Days". Dramatic features tend to have goal-directed stories with uncomplicated happy endings, and the messiness of life gets sanded off in the name of giving the people what they supposedly want.

"True Spirit" is now available on Netflix.

Directed by Sarah Spillane

Written by Cathy Randall

Rebecca Banner

Sarah Spillane

Produced by Susan Cartsonis

Debra Martin Chase

Andrew Fraser

Starring Teagan Croft

Cliff Curtis

Anna Paquin

Cinematography Danny Ruhlmann

Edited by Veronika Jenet

Music by Nick Wales

Production companies Resonate Entertainment

The Rebel Fleet

Sunstar Entertainment

Martin Chase Productions

Distributed by Netflix

Release dates 26 January 2023 (Australia)

3 February 2023 (Netflix)

Running time 109 minutes

Country Australia

Language English

Production

The feature film True Spirit, which will be helmed by Sarah Spillane, will be based on Watson's memoir, according to a 16 July 2020 Netflix announcement. Susan Cartsonis, Debra Martin Chase, and Andrew Fraser are the producers for Resonate Entertainment, Martin Chase Productions, and Sunstar Entertainment, respectively. For Resonate Entertainment, Suzanne Farwell and Brent Emery serve as executive producers. Clément Bauer is a co-producer with Resonate Entertainment. [5] [6] August 2021 saw filming on Chevron Island in the Australian state of Queensland's City of Gold Coast. The production was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.